Same But Different
by robdrobot
Summary: Draco notices something is different with the Gryffindor Princess. She looks at him with a calculating look. Different emotions pass her face before she smiles at him. His breath catches at his throat, that smile was never addressed at him. He decided it was the perfect smile, breathtaking and beautiful. Nothing like the bucktooth girl from before. ONE-SHOT. AU


**AN: Hello everyone, this is my very first FF. So please do RR. Also, nothing belongs to me but the plot. JKR is a goddess too.**

She was different. Her face is still stuck in a book, but he knows she's different. Watching her across the great hall, Draco knows something about her has changed. He still sees glimpses of how she was before from time to time, raising those damn dainty hands in class seemingly the only one who knows the answer. Who was he kidding, she's the only one who knows the answer.

Bloody know it all. But it's different now, like she answers out of necessity. To put up a front. Nobody notices, especially not the two dunderheads she calls friends.

She stands up from her table, wonder boy looking at her questionably. Of course she says she's going to the library, but he knows she doesn't go there. He knows because he checks.

...

That damn pink toad has been yapping endlessly about reading our textbook nonsense. If it weren't for Father's extra tutors and his Godfather's insistence on teaching him he won't know a damn thing about defense. He snorts, that pink toad utters bullshit all the time.

And of course, The great potty have something to say again. Does he have to put himself out all the time? Bloody gryffindors. He glances his view to the bushy gryffindor. Noticing the soft waves of curls going down the small of her back. Huh.. since when does she fix her hair? He smirks. Well, she did look nice that night of the yule. But somehow this is different, who knew her hair had many shades of brown, red and gold in them. It was mesmerizing to watch her tuck her hair behind her ear with those dainty fingers of hers. Her fingers always covered in ... hmm that's odd her hands are smooth and clean today. It's as if she's not even taking notes. Looking at her again he realizes that she's not even paying attention in class.

She's just looking out the window. Come to think of it, she didn't even protest with scarhead today. She just stares blankly at people. He thought he saw a flicker of anger behind those wide orbs awhile ago while looking at cat-toad (now that's a weird species), but it was gone before he could check again.

She must've felt my eyes on her because suddenly she looks me dead in the eye. I had to sneer at her before looking away. Merlin she could really break a sweat out off of him.

...

There was no quidditch practice today but he had to get away from Pansy latching herself all over him. Merlin, shag the girl once and she thinks you're asking her to marry you.

It was a gloomy afternoon and it looks like it was about to rain. But he didn't care, he wanted to clear his mind. Especially now that it's mostly about a certain curly haired witch. He was doing lazy circles around the pitch when he suddenly notices the curls from his thoughts walking towards the lake.

Having nothing to do, Draco follows her, sticking to the shadows of the nearby trees. She's been going around the castle with that small bag of hers. Must have an undetectable extension charm in it.

She suddenly reaches in her bag, her whole arm disappearing inside it. He smirks, who knew the know-it-all carries around such an illegal item. Deciding on taunting her he flies closely to her until he sees her take out a guitar from the bag.

He stops mid-flight and perches himself in a branch away from her view. He was mesmerized. Of course the know-it-all knows how to play a god damn guitar. Whats next, she can sing like an angel too? He almost fell from his perch when she suddenly sang. A song he doesn't recognize. Probably muggle.

It was beautiful but haunting, almost as if her voice carries a pain like no other. He knows something is different with her, but this.. this takes the cake. He wonders what had happened to her. He knew he was invading a private moment especially when a lone tear crosses her cheek. Deciding to leave the witch alone he flies back to the castle.

...

He sees his godfather notices something different about her too. He stares at her while she prepares her ingredients. She just finishes her potions quietly, and now she barely raises her hand in class. Others are taking a notice too. Blaise thinks the know it all has been shagging someone because her uppity attitude is gone. Well whoever it is, it's not the dunderduo. They seem just as oblivious as before. Well maybe except for scarhead, he looks at her sideways. But she just looks back and smiles.

That seemed to relax her friend.

She hands her potion to Snape, and he sneeres at her giving her an Acceptable. Looking at her potions, its obvious to see it was brewed to perfection. But instead of arguing back she just nods at him and comes back to her table to clean it. Blaise gave me a look, looks like he can now see something is truly different with her.

...

He's not that ecstatic about the yule break, it's just another long holiday. He didn't want to bother coming home. Especially since he won't be able to see the curly haired witch, which come to think of it he hasn't seen since yesterday.

It seems potty and weasel realizes she's missing too because they have stepped in the library. He scowls at them. Those two are as graceful as trolls on a hippogriff. Madam Pince throws a pointed look at them and they scramble out off the library. It seems she was not at her special nook too, nor was she in the great hall this morning. She missed her classes too.

People are starting to whisper, assuming where the gryffindor princess has gone. They said she's just skiving off and has had enough of her good girl image. However he liked that image, she looked pure. He remebers his family motto, _Sanctimonia Vincet Sempe_ my arse. That girl is more pure than he is. She is highly intelligent, annoyingly kind and now breathtakingly beautiful. What's worse was she doesn't let this get in her head, always humble like that.

But lately it seems she has been hollow. Like her life is empty. The fire in her eyes have dimmed since the beginning of the year, and he doesn't seem to know why. He follows and watches her around but nothing explains her cutoff behavior. Maybe she's trying a new look, girls are into that these days. Isn't it?

He comes to the great hall for dinner and sits down besides Blaise. He nudges me towards the high table. He glances there, it seems the old coot was gone too.

...

_Son,_

_I do not permit you to stay at the castle this __Yule break__. _

_It is urgent you come home to the manor at once._

_Severus will floo you from his__ office__ should you wish_ _to avoid the train crowd. _

_Otherwise, __I__ will be at __the_ _station__ to fetch you._

_Father_

His brows furrows. His father is willing to pick him up from the station? Something is happening. He knows the dark lord has been staying at the manor. Draco pales, not wanting to be in the presence of his lord. He shudders every time those dark red eyes look at him, and the sick fuck takes pleasure in his discomfort. He did not want him looking into his mind and seeing a certain curly haired witch in there. Merlin knows what that madman might do to him, or her!! If he finds out he's been fantasizing about a mud.. no muggleborn.

Draco looks out the window, contemplating what to write back to his father, he knows he cannot decline this. He wonders too when he stopped using that word.

...

"What do you think this means Lucius?" Draco sees his mother, anxiety written all over her face. He has floo'd from Severus' office to the manor. His parents didn't even bother greeting him this time. "I don't know Cissy, I'm trying to figure it out my self too."

He enters the parlor and greets his parents. He gave a curt nod to his father and a kiss on the cheek for his mom. He looks at them, question written on his face. He doesn't dare speak, pureblood manners taught him to let the elders speak first. Lucius sensing this asks his son to settle on the opposite chaise.

"Son it.. it seems.. I have no other way to say it" distraught clearly on Lucius' face. Draco was shock, his father stumbling with what to say. The shock must have been obvious on his face because his father clears his throat

"It seems that there is no other way to say it, but we think, No..no I know the Dark Lord has been killed. And this time for good. He has... no way of returning anymore."

To say he was shock was an understatement. He had an idea his father's news would be big, but he wasn't expecting this. "What makes you think that father?"

"My mark Draco, it's gone"

His father shows his arm. The one he tries to cover all the time. It was pale, white and shockingly unmarked. He turns wide eyed to his father. "How is that possible father?"

...

Theo has been spending the remainder of the hols at the Manor. Their fathers looking into what happened to their Lord. It seems that the Dark Lord was truly gone. Every pureblood loyal to the cause has been shocked, but has remained quiet. Since _his_ return during the Twi-wizard tournament the Dark Lord has been travelling with only the snivelling rat for a companion.

How the dark lord endures him he does not know. He suppose lackeys are always snivelling or drooling trolls. He thinks about Crabbe and Goyle, their fathers are the dark lords supporters too.

He was rattled from his reverie when his father exits the floo. His face very different from his once aristocratic snob facade. Hair loose, with gaunt eyes and stubble across his face. His mother gasps at his distraught look. Lucius tells Theo to go back to his father and he will meet Draco at the Station.

Narcissa cups his husbands face, he was rigid standing still, back ramrod straight and very pale.

"Lucius.." His mother says softly.

"He's gone Cissa, the Dark Lord is dead."

...

Back in the Slytherin Common Rooms. Draco can sense the crippling tense atmosphere. Every pureblood once loyal to the Dark Lord, lost at what to do.

He was just glad the Dark Lord is gone, he knew the man, _no monster_, was just a demented arse who does not give a fuck about pureblood traditions and the old ways. If you ask him honestly, muggleborns are not really what his family claims to be. They were taught that muggleborns are beneath them, magical abominations who does not deserve their magic. He snorts internally, he knows that's not true. She's the living proof their prejudices are wrong.

Blaise enters the common room, strutting towards him. All smug he flops down beside me.

"Have you heard, Potter's in the infirmary. Said he hit his head or something. Bloody idiot made his scar bigger!" Blaise sniggers. The only guy whose mouth gossips more than the Greengrass sisters. He thinks about what he said, she's probably there with scarhead. Mollycoddling him like a baby.

Her. He thinks about her again. With the Dark Lord gone maybe this time he can tell her...

"Oh, and miss prissy know it all has not come back yet! The redhead git has been going on and on about how he deserves to know where she is..." Blaise cuts his thoughts. She hasn't returned yet? This is not connected to the... he stops his thoughts right there.

That's quite impossible she's a muggleborn.

...

She never came back.

Some said a muggle boyfriend knocked her up and she quit school. Others said she lost her magic or that she went to Bulgaria to follow that brute quidditch player. He overheard the gossiping chits at the halls, said she turned into a vampire-warewolf, he rolls his eyes at this one. There's also this one 3rd year hufflepuff who said her brain shrivel from information overload. He shakes his head, he knows she can read the whole Hogwarts' library and still there's not enough knowledge out there that can sate her curiosity. Maybe curiosity killed the cat… No let's not get too dark there.

He sees potty and weasel go down to the that giant oaf's hut. They've been despondent and lost. Bunch of fools, can't even function without her.

...

He graduates top of his class. Without her to compete against him it was easy to get the top position. His mother gives him a proud look from the crowd, even his father looks pleased.

He wonders if it will be the same if she was here. But no, everything is different now.

...

It's been 3 years since he graduated from Hogwarts. He's the youngest Potions Master in Britain, his achievements just next from his godfather. His success in improving and inventing new products and potions for Malfoy Apothecary was no easy feat. But having to put most of his time in his work, it was a job easily done.

He still thinks about her some days. It helps that he's one of the most wanted bachelors in Wizarding Britain now. He can get any witch he wants.

Mother asks me when will I settle. I can't help it when every woman I meet, I end up comparing them to her. Which is stupid, because all thoughts of her are mostly just from his fantasies. Sometimes he wonders if she was even real. But he sees Potter and Weasley in Diagon Alley, somber faces every time they pass by Flourish Blotts.

He wonders what happened to her, even skeeter has nothing to write about the gryffindor bookworm.

..

He stops at an almost empty park near the Leaky. Most of his friends are getting married now, and his mother pressures him more than ever. His father has been talking with Lord Greengrass, he just hopes its Astoria and not Daphne. He seldom thinks of her now, just a moment of passing thoughts about her.

He was distracted by a rustling behind the bench he's sitting on. Draco saw a green snake slithering out from the shrubs. His fear of snakes makes the back of his hair stand. It doesn't matter if his former school house mascot was a snake, those reptiles make him break into cold sweats.

He was about to cast a stinging curse for it to go away when a boy suddenly grabs the snake and hisses at him. The boy was no more than 5-6 years old. With black wavy hair combed perfectly, not a strand out of place.

He was stuck in place as he stares at the glare of the boy. Something about his deep dark green eyes were eerily familiar to him, but he cannot quite place it. Suddenly he hears a voice. The same voice he has not heard from such a long time ago.

"Thomas, you know it's not proper to glare at people" the lady in front of him says sternly.

"But mom, this Man was about to attack Sally!" whines the boy.

Draco couldn't help but gape at the sight before him. It was the same long cascading curls he used to stare at back in potions class, however it was also different. Her slender frame more womanly now, and her face more beautiful from what he remembers. He couldn't help but stare. She was really different now, save for one. Her eyes, the ever intelligent knowing amber eyes that he cannot help but drown in. He feels like she's staring into his very soul.

"Nobody gets to hurt Sally mom! She's my friend" the boy, no the brat, cries to his mom.

Mom? So I guess the rumors were true...

"Well hello to you too Draco, yes you can say that I am Thomas' mom" she smiles down at the boy and the boy relaxes as he sees his mother's attention was back at him. He grimaces, he didn't mean to say his thoughts out loud.

"It's nice to see you Granger, you look very different now" She raises her brows at him, lips thinned and pinched. A disapproving look on her face. "I..I.. I mean good different.." he stumbles out "I mean you look good Granger, it's been so long since I last saw you." If he notices that she still acknowledge being called Granger he doesn't show it.

She looks at him with a calculating look. Different emotions pass her face before she smiles at him. His breath catches at his throat, that smile was never addressed towards him. He decided it was the perfect smile, breathtaking and beautiful. Nothing like the bucktooth girl from before.

She nods at him and said her goodbyes. He never got to ask what happened to her, or where she goes now, or if she still sees the Golden Duo.

He was staring at her retreating back holding her sons hand in her right. They were about to turn in the spot and apparate when he sees the boy's narrowed eyes glaring at him. His eyes widen at the realization.

Horror creeps in him. He sees it now, it was the same eyes that used to bring chills to his blood when they look at him at the manor. Same eyes that puts grown dark wizards to their knees. Same eyes, but different.

As the mother and son disappear before his eyes. The only thought he has ...

"What have you done Granger"

~Fin~


End file.
